Microsoft has begun to tease the successor to the Xbox Series X/S, promising the “largest technical leap” in Xbox console history.
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Following rumours Xbox was set to make a number of exclusive titles available to both PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch gamers, many fans assumed Microsoft could be about to follow the lead of Sega and pivot away from hardware to become a software-only studio.
However during a podcast presentation about the “vision for the future” of the brand last night (February 15), Microsoft confirmed it was set to continue to manufacture consoles.
“There’s some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we’re going to share this holiday and we’re also invested in the next generation roadmap,” said Xbox president Sarah Bond. “What we’re really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation”
“That makes it better for players, and better for creators and the visions that they’re building,” she added. “We have more creators building for Xbox than ever before.
“When we look at our hardware, it’s where you get the most seminal Xbox experience,” Bond continued. “When you play on Xbox, you’re playing on a platform where you know the biggest games in the world are always going to be. And you’re playing on a platform that’s dedicated to you [with] player first features like cross-play, backwards compatibility,” she added.
Phil Spencer then spoke about the importance of compatibility. “The ability to not only play the games but [have] the saves still be accessible via the cloud and to try and keep the services up as long as possible so people can still play, that’s a tenant of what Xbox is. It’s in our foundation. So when we look at future hardware generations and what we’re going to support, making sure we respect the investments people have made in Xbox going forward is fundamental.”
Elsewhere during the 22-minute presentation, Microsoft confirmed four Xbox-exclusive titles would soon be available on rival consoles as an experiment but Game Pass would remain a dedicated Xbox service.